1870. ] 
CLEMATIS PEINCESS MARY.—FRUIT-TllINNINa. 
121 
CLEMATIS PRINCESS MARY. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
now submit to our readers a picture of a charming new Clematis^ 
of the florida race, descended from Clematis Standishii^ and one of a 
fine batch recently obtained by Mr. 0. Noble, of Sunningdale. It is the 
most distinct break we have yet seen from the violets, grays, and whites 
which are the ordinary colours of the large-flowered forms of Clematis ; and its 
very pleasing shade of rosy-pink will render it a most welcome acquisition. 
The niche which this novelty is adapted to fill, is that of an early-blooming 
hardy or conservatory climber. It is of free but slender growth, with quite the 
habit of C. Standishii^ and like that plant, is adapted either for pot-culture or 
for planting out in the conservatory, or against a conservative wall. As a spring 
exhibition plant, blooming freely about the month of May, this, with others of 
its race, is to be highly recommended. With the double white C. Fortunei, the 
double blue C. John G. Veitch^ and the hybrids Mr. Noble has introduced to 
public notice, e.g.^ Miss Bateman, Albert Victor, Lady Londesborough, &c., a very 
charming group might be made up. Though the exact parentage of the individual 
seedlings has not been preserved, we learn from Mr. Noble that C. Standishii, 
Fortunei, and SojJda Jlore-pleno^ with C. lanuginosa (the two former principally 
the seed-bearers), were the parents of his hybrids,—a race of free-blooming, early- 
flowering varieties, which, possessing vigour of growth, combine also fine form 
and unwonted substance of petal, with some exquisite tints of colour. We learn, 
moreover, that the plants are perfectly hardy.—T. M. 
FRUIT-THINNING. 
)ERHAP3 no practice is so much neglected as that of the careful thinning 
ML ■ of fruit. In many gardens it seldom reaches below Peaches, Nectarines, 
Apricots, or perhaps Plums ; and even these are thinned, if at all, in a 
haphazard way. All fruits below these in the scale of importance are 
left crowded together, or are suffered to thin themselves, as the case may be. 
Under such circumstances, it is hardly to be wondered at that we so often see 
trees either laden beyond their strength, borne down beneath a heavy load of 
puny fruit, or without a crop at all. These results but too often represent 
two opposite sides of the same evil. Barrenness is the rebound from over¬ 
cropping. The trees swiftly revenge ill-treatment, either in the current or 
the preceding year. This is so well known, so generally admitted, that 
it has become quite common among fruit-growers to talk of alternate crops 
of this or that fruit. The season gives us such light weights a great deal 
too often, without our help and in spite of our hindrances; and it is a 
serious blunder, if not a crime, that we should add to the number of the 
years of scarcity by our reckless or thoughtless modes of cropping. I was in 
3rd series.-III. G 
